|
|
Starnes Jewelers (and former Opera House) From Stanly County The Architectural Legacy of a Rural North Carolina County by Donna Dodenhoff 1992 This exuberant
example of an earlier twentieth century commercial building in Romanesque
Revival style makes the county's strongest architectural statement of the
economic boom era inaugurated by the coming of the railroad and the textile
industry to the county in the 1890's. The
Opera House building was erected in the downtown commercial district in 1907 by
three business partners: F.E. Starnes, his father-in-law Doc Frank Parker, and
Parker's brother, J.C. Parker. The
partners planned the two-and- one-half story brick building to accommodate two
stores at street level and an opera house above.
The jewelry store established by F.E. Starnes on the east end of the
building is currently owned and managed by F.E. Starnes' grandson Francis Eugene
(Gene) Starnes III, who also owns a satellite store in Lexington.
The building's other street level store has housed a succession of
businesses, among them: two shoe stores, two pawn shops and a boutique.
The upstairs opera house held performances from 1908 to 1913; it was
converted to a movie theatre in 1914. In
1919 it became an undertaker's annex. Several
businesses were also housed on the second floor in offices facing West Main
Street. Among them were a beauty
shop operated by Ruth Peeler before her marriage to F.E. Starnes, law offices
of G.D.B. Reynolds, the son-in-law of Doc Frank Parker, and doctor's offices.
In 1990 and 1991, the current owners of the building, Gene Starnes and
Catherine Pickler, had the building's 1920's façade restored.
Starnes had the jewelry store's vintage 1940's interior renovated.
The two rows of
windows on the front with granite and limestone accents dating to 1907, rather
than elaborate brick corbelling, give the building its decorative exuberance.
The five sets of paired windows piercing the second floor have webbed,
round-arched transoms, keys and corbelled hoods.
The five round pivot windows at balcony level also have webbed panes and
keys; they are rimmed with brick corbelling.
The stair rising to the opera house and second floor office spaces is
accessible form a central entrance that divides the two downstairs stores.
This recessed entrance has a double leaf door surmounted by a deep transom
and guarded by a wrought iron gate. In
the late 1920's, the stores at street level were given an Art Deco treatment
with carrara marble tiles accented with white diamonds.
These stores have recessed entrances flanked by large glass display
windows. The
Opera House in its Heyday The 800-seat opera
house quickly became a focal point of the county's cultural and civic life.
From a stage framed by a pressed tin proscenium arch and satin curtains,
audiences were entertained with Broadway and Lyceum productions and by
troubadours, traveling minstrel shows and other comedy and musical productions.
A piano player near the stage provided musical accompaniments.
In the off season, the auditorium was used for lectures, political
rallies, high school commencements and other civic affairs.
An announcement in the Stanly Enterprise on the opera house's opening
performance reflected the excitement rippling through the community.
Of Polk Miller's story telling and Plantation Quartette, the announcement
said: "It is to be a veritable
evening of song and story, and no one in reach of Albemarle should miss the
performance. Buy your seats at once
and have them reserved." The audiences sat
in rows of mahogany seats anchored to a graduated floor that allowed maximum
visibility of the stage. Balcony
seating was accessible from a stair rising from the back of the auditorium.
Liveried ushers showed patrons to their seats.
A pressed tin ceiling and painted scenery heightened the theatricality of
the interior. |